The average fee on the Bitcoin network jumped to $19.48 as the halving approaches.

According to BitInfoCharts, fees on the Bitcoin network have increased significantly as the Runes protocol is about to launch. On April 18, the average commission reached $19.48, rising by almost $14 since the beginning of the month.

The increase in this indicator is likely due to the launch of the Runes protocol by Casey Rodarmor, which was positioned as a simpler alternative to Ordinals. Rodarmor claimed that the main problem with BRC-20 tokens is that they clog the network.

The Runes protocol aims to solve this problem by working autonomously without requiring Ordinals and allowing for more efficient transactions. Some projects, including the NFT collection PUPS, announced the release of tokens based on the new standard in advance.

PUPS is an experimental BRC-20 token on the BTC blockchain. After the halving scheduled for April 20, developers plan to transfer the asset to the Runes protocol. Over the past week, positioning itself as “the first meme coin on the Bitcoin network,” the PUPS token has experienced an explosive price increase of over 1,200%.

The asset’s capitalization, launched in January of this year, and currently stands at $439 million. Meanwhile, the trading volume of the PUPS meme coin exceeds $5.4 million.